Cold, Inside and Out
by eyecy
Summary: Todoroki and Midoriya are paired together for a survival exercise- it's extremely cold, and extremely gay. Not sure what else you want me to say.


Midoriya Izuku twirled his pen between his fingers, looking earnestly towards the front of the classroom. Aizawa, sounding uninspired, was lecturing the class on what the next exercise they would undertake was going to be. Despite the obvious lack of enthusiasm from their teacher, Midoriya was scribbling notes at every second sentence. He looked down at his paper again, frowning and tapping his lip with his pen.

Todoroki Shouto had never been able to understand how Midoriya managed to put effort into everything. He always seemed so excited, as if he was experiencing everything for the first time. Shouto hadn't listened to anything Aizawa had said for the whole lesson. He supposed that it was lucky he was naturally smart, so he could excel in tests without needing to pay attention in class.

He was lucky he could stare at Midoriya in classes without it affecting his grades. Annoyed at himself, he tried to look out the window instead. It was a failed attempt; he looked back when Midoriya lifted a hand to brush a piece of greenish hair out of his face. Shouto rested his face on his chin, looking at him with his naturally cool glare.

It was no mystery to him what he found so fascinating about Midoriya. He could admit it to himself; he was envious. To Shouto, life didn't seem to hold any surprises any more. He woke, went to school, and went home. Even when he fought, he never really felt fired up. He was as cold as the ice that dominated his life. He never felt the excitement that he saw light up in Midoriya's eyes.

He forced himself to pay attention for a few moments.

"The next challenge that you will all have to undertake is the survival test," Aizawa droned. The class murmured excitedly. "You will be put into groups of two. The task will be to survive in your given biome for three days."

Everyone immediately began to look around at his or her friends. Shouto didn't bother. He would group up with someone left over at the end.

It wasn't that he didn't have friends; he just preferred working alone.

And he was no one's first choice.

Flatly, he waited for the fateful words: Everyone, find groups now. What he heard was not exactly what he'd expected.

"Your groups have already been assigned." The class groaned. Ashido rested her head on the desk with a pout.

Impervious to the unhappiness of his students, Aizawa began reading out the pairings. Shouto listened; not that it mattered much to him.

"Ojiro and Kaminari, Sero and Asui... Midoriya and Todoroki," Aizawa said in monotone.

Shouto glanced sharply at Midoriya, to see wide green eyes already staring at him.

Midoriya smiled tentatively. Shouto couldn't keep eye contact, and looked away self-consciously.

"It'll start tomorrow. I would suggest that, before tomorrow, you and your partner go over the content we've been looking at for the past few days. As a hero, it's possible you could end up stranded somewhere after fighting a villain. In my younger days, I had to survive in a desert for three weeks after Present Mic screwed up one of our fights. Never forgave him for that..."

A few of the class giggled slightly at the vague annoyance that flitted across Aizawa's face.

"Anyway. That's your homework. Better get on it. Class dismissed."

Shouto groaned internally when he saw Midoriya making his way determinately towards his desk, and he realised he didn't have time to pack up and leave before he reached him.

"Todoroki- this is pretty exciting, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Shouto looked down to avoid the enthusiasm that Midoriya was beaming. He was like the sun, too bright to look at directly.

"Anyway, I was thinking maybe we should go through all the survival tips for various areas together after school."

Shouto wanted, so badly, to accept Midoriya offer. But...

"If we revise separately we should be fine." He gathered his books, glancing up to see Midoriya's face fall slightly in disappointment.

"Oh. Okay then." It looked like he was going to keep talking, but Shouto turned tail and strode out before he could hear any more. He could still see those puppy dog eyes looking up at him, and he scowled to himself. He could pretend he was annoyed at Midoriya- he knew perfectly well he was frustrated with himself; with the way he pushed everyone away.

He had put up walls of ice around him, and they were far more effective than anything he could create with his quirk.

That night, Shouto couldn't sleep. For a while, he lay in bed on his back, staring up at the ceiling. He seemed to see curls of green hair in the shadows on the ceiling, so he turned onto his side, but he could still see a smattering of freckles in the darkness. Rolling onto his stomach, he pressed his face into his pillow, and sparks gathered in front of his eyes like constellations of green.

He became more and more agitated, an unbearable heat spreading through him. For the most part, he kept a cool facade on, so that it wasn't common knowledge what happened when he did get flustered. But whenever he was angry, or nervous, he found his temperature harder and harder to control. In fights, this was fine; he could just use the ice or fire against the enemy that happened to be there.

But getting flashes of extreme temperatures in any other context was inconvenient, to say in the least. Shouto flashed back to the hours he had spent sitting on the floor pressed against the wall, listening to his father shouting, and frantically blowing to put out the tiny flames that had appeared there, hair glued to his forehead with sweat.

Shouto couldn't take it anymore, and he pulled on short and rushed outside. He looked up, taking deep, cool breaths of air. Slowly, his temperature reverted to normal. He spun around to head back inside, when he saw a familiar silhouette just exiting the building.

Midoriya. Instinctually, unthinkingly, Shouto started towards him; but then another figure followed him out, and he stopped in his tracks, shrinking back into the darkness. It was the girl. Uraraka. The two of them were talking softly, and Shouto could hear Midoriya's quiet laughter. They stayed in the circle of light just outside the door, sitting down on the concrete.

Shouto felt that there was something awfully symbolic about his presence on the outside of the circle. Despite himself, he felt a small emptiness in his chest, and made himself back further into the darkness. Once he was a safe distance away, he ran to where he knew his window was, and climbed up to it via a length of piping.

He jumped lightly onto the floor, and crossed his legs in the pool of moonlight, staring at the floor. He was disgusted with himself. How could he be so weak as to feel dejected, just because he had seen two people, happy together? Uraraka, after all, was perfect for Midoriya. She was bubbly, happy, and as enthusiastic as he was.

Shouto leaned against the side of his bed, staring up at the stars. The whole universe was on fire with passion and meaning; and he had been firmly locked out.


End file.
